queequeg

Think what you will, this is *absolutely*, a publicity stunt. I would bet my hands that this idea has been run through both their pr and advertising agency, and that it was both honed and blessed by both, to create marketing buzz and more to the point, to validate Burton to the contingency of riders they are seeking to appeal to with it. Plenty of money and thought went into producing it, and I guarantee you it was built in an advertising/interactive agency. Don't fool yourself, It is about the bottom line (not that there's anything wrong with that).

Hey Cool - that sounds great - I'll give you a ring tonight when I get home!!

I've been here just about four years now ... finally gotten used to it. I'm determined to ride every weekend I'm here this winter, which will be tricky without a car, but there are busses. Next weekend is my first ( was sick this weekend ). Give me a heads up if you drive out here at all!

Actually, if what you say is true about MRG's skiership, then they're probably doing us all a favor by keeping the freaks contained in their own little "sanitary" isolated world, the fewer anti-snowboarding retards I run into on the mountain, the better. Instead of thinking about them as a bunch of elietists, think of them as a leper colony :-). As long as there are teenagers, lemmings and retards, there will be wannabe gangsta's ... it's got nothing to do with snowboarding and the vast majority of the population recognizes this. I'm really not worried about it. The bro stuff is pretty half baked and lame ... bad execution. They should have used a military/infiltration mission type theme instead. That would have been less rancorous, and seemed less of a pathetic appeal to the lowest common lifestyle-marketing denominator. Jake may have started snowboarding but pandering to these jackasses is a lame ass play, I agree. Yeah, I thought that was hysterical too. What do you think you are, a cop or something? I really liked the little exchange on the first video where the guy says "Hey, did ya lose one of your skis", and the snowboarder replies "We lost 'em all" funny.

I have to admit, I laughed my ass off, as someone (like many others here, I would assume) who had to endure the early years of hardship, when few mountains would take us, and skiers ridiculed us at every opportunity. It IS kinda childish, but it made me giggle my brains out, with the exception of the one segment where the riders were purposefully harassing the skiers on (their) mountain by riding over their tails etc ... that's pretty lame. I'm not familiar with these mountains, but I would (assume) that most of them are holding out on this policy because they have nothing (positive) to distinguish them from the crowd and attract ridership, so this is the only way they can attract a loyal base of customers who might otherwise go to mountains with better prices/location/snow/lifts/trails/etc ... I assume the only people that ski at these places are the same jackasses that complain that snowboarders are "scraping all the snow off the mountain" as they snowplow from summit to base ... irrational snow-sliding xenophobes. I'd bet that that the same prank, executed by a capable alpine rider at a resort that doesn't see (any/much) snowboarders might earn quite a few converts. <snobbery>Most softbooters are pretty decent, reasonable human beings, but sometimes I think the reason so many skiers respect alpine riders is because we're (often) a much more polite crowd, and also because we generally let our riding to the talking for us.</snobbery> I get nothing but respect from skiers on an alpine board.

Hey - thought I'd give this a shot. I'm planning on riding as much as possible this winter, starting next weekend. Wondering if there are any NYC'ers who head up to (any) mountain with any regularity on the weekends? I don't have a car but if you want company (and cas/toll money) I'd be psyched to help/share ... and uhh ... have a ride ... seeing as how I don't have a car and all :-) I live in Queens (astoria), and live right on the N so meeting in Queens/Manhattan is very easy for me.

Something like that works for me too ... though I find that what works best for me (particularly on heelsides) is to try to look at and focus my shoulders on what I want to be the center of my carve radius before I start doing anything with the rest of my body. So for me I try to initiate the turn with my head/eyes and bring it down to my feet. I also like to push against my board progressively through my turn. But I think my body knows a lot more about what's going on when it's going on, than my mind does now sitting in front of a computer trying to describe it. I know I've got it right when I feel like my knees and hips are really loaded up in the turn. Particularly the knees. I can't say I'm advanced enough that anything that I do with my toes makes much of a difference :-)

Oh you know, my pet monkey gets monkey-cancer, and I have to send him to the monkey-doctor. That would be "necessary". If I had a pet Monkey. And it had monkey-cancer.

That's lookin' pretty sweet Doug.

It's an awesome price ... too bad I've promised myself to curtain all but arguably necessary spending for the rest of the year ... I've been bleedin' dough' like paris hilton since this summer and I've gotta put a plug in it

The sleeve with the hoodie guy on his left arm is pretty sweet. Some of the images on his fotolog site remind me of Mark Ryden in a (distant) way ... if only in style and not so much content. (some people might find these links a bit disturbing) http://www.markryden.com/paintings/blood/index.html http://www.markryden.com/paintings/meat/index.html

Arrgh ... I'm trying to keep the spending in line this winter ... otherwise I'd paypal you the money for that f2 speedster right now ... I feel like I need a smaller board for crowded ice-coast weekends and that would be perfect. I don't know why I keep looking at the classifieds!

Perhaps so, but it seems likely to me that the PR payoff would be a bigger boon to them compared with the minor headache it would take for their team of lawyers (who are almost certainly on retainer or working in-house anyway), to draw up the necessary liability-assumption and waiver paperwork, to make the transfer safe for them.

That's gotta be it ... the twirly things on either end of the "straps" things look too fussy for a softboot binding.

So this is just a huge shame, yes? As I understand it Chris Klug does not own the moulds and unless Burton gets back into the alpine game, they will continue to deteriorate further into disrepair until burton tosses them out; and yet burton would expect him to purchase/repair them from them before any new boots could be produced from them? Why doesn't burton just give them to Klug or Bomber, (saving themselves the maintenance/storage costs) and earning a little PR kick out of the deal - it seems like they're no reason for them to hold on to them, given that they don't see alpine as a profitable market for them ... It seems like there is some good that can be done with those moulds in this (somewhat, seemingly) struggling market - and yet while burton refuses to share its bowl with the alpine manufacturers, neither does it want to eat from it. It seems like it's probably naive to mention it, but why don't they just give the moulds to klug or any other party that might someday have the funds to refurbish and improve upon them. It's not like they'd be feeding the competition, seeing as how burton is no longer in the alpine game ...

Wow ... looks like a beautiful day on mt. hood!

I was wondering what those things are too ... some kind of bizarre insert I imagine.

whoah ... hideous. Those bindings look scary as hell.

Just ask yourself, is it really worth the possibility of injuring yourself catastrophically just to save a bit of money? Don't ride on broken/unsafe equipment.

Nice!

When you make an inflammatory remark such as this, you should expect to receive an equally (if not more) unkind remark in return, particularly if your original comment was totally undeserved and without merit.

I like the sportbike one. And the skiboard one ... I get that skiboard crap from time to time, usually from people who seem to think they know more about what is strapped to my feet than I do.

I still have a pair of these "in-service" believe it or not, they're on my Ride Kildy 159 ... screwed and epoxied into the base given the 3-d pattern and the lack of proper inserts on the kildy ... (way sketchy, but somehow, its a fun ride anyway).

I haven't found anything in NYC yet ... Starting Gate in Vermont is probably your best bet.

Yeah, I'd pick up divebombers reactors before trusting my feet and my ride to a pair of ancient rossi hardboots.